Bill Prady is a veteran writer and co-creator/executive producer of “The Big Bang Theory.” Here he shares a memory from early in his career, when he was a staff writer for the Jim Henson Co. during a moment of global economic instability.
On November 6, 1987, after a devastating stock market crash, the Muppets appeared on a special “Town Hall” edition of ABC’s “Nightline” in segments designed to explain the financial system. I wrote those segments and I hadn’t thought about them in years — until John Oliver aired one of them recently on “Last Week Tonight.”
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In 1987 I had my first professional job as a writer. I was a computer programmer when I dropped out of college and moved to New York, but a series of the kind of decisions you make in your twenties had landed me at the Muppets. I was a production assistant, then I worked in the licensing department and then I became a staff writer with a portfolio of miscellany.
Funny box copy for the Swedish Chef’s cereal? That was me. “Dial-a-Muppet” sketches? Me. A statement to the press from Miss Piggy? Me. One of the things I certainly wasn’t focused on as a 27-year-old writing for a frog and a pig was the stock market.
On October 19, 1987 the U.S. stock market crashed. The Dow fell 23%, percent wreaking havoc on the economy. Ted Koppel, the host of “Nightline,” began production on a special to look at the crisis in depth. Realizing that an understanding of some basics was essential, he wondered if the Muppets would be available to handle the task.
I have two favorite parts of this story. The first is the phone call between Ted Koppel and Jim Henson. If you weren’t there, I should let you know that 1987 was a fairly primitive time. We hadn’t yet started to walk around with the internet in our pockets. Jim’s office got a message that Koppel wanted to speak to him, but Jim wasn’t going to be reachable that day. We were shooting public service announcements for the National Wildlife Federation on location in Central Park.
ABC told Jim’s office that that wouldn’t be a problem. They would send a mobile phone into Central Park. Sure enough, in the middle of that afternoon, a production assistant from ABC found us in the woods off the Great Lawn. He opened up a large aluminum briefcase, extended an antenna and moments later the thing rang.
While we watched in awe like the apes in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Koppel explained to Jim what he wanted: short funny bits explaining basic terms like “bull market,” “bear market,” “margin call,” “contrarian” etc.
Jim turned to me. “You got this?”
“I got this,” I said.
Bill Prady’s read begins at the 37:45 mark in this episode of Variety’s weekly “Strictly Business” podcast.
Bill Prady’s read of this story begins at the 37:45 mark in this episode of Variety’s weekly “Strictly Business” podcast
The next day I was off to the New York Public Library to learn about the stock market. (Again, it was 1987. In 1987, Wikipedia was a building you went to filled with books and people.) I’d been told that Jim and Frank Oz would perform the pieces, so I wrote them for their characters. Jim would perform Kermit and Rowlf the Dog, Frank would perform Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and a few others. The pieces were short and as funny as I could make them while conveying the content.
We headed over to ABC News headquarters on West 66th Street to shoot. Our set department had built a miniature version of then-ABC News anchor Peter Jennings’ desk, and the puppet workshop dressed Kermit in a smart newsy blue blazer. As we walked in, Jim remarked that the studio we were in, ABC Studio One, had been the home of “The Jimmy Dean Show.” Airing from 1963 to 1966, “The Jimmy Dean Show” featured Jim’s puppet Rowlf. It was the first regular network appearance of a Muppet character.
The studio wasn’t ideal for shooting puppets. Although we had a desk in the correct scale, there really wasn’t a good setup for the puppeteers. Jim and Frank had to wedge themselves uncomfortably under and behind it. We worked as quickly as we could.
Fozzie Bear explained bear markets and Miss Piggy took umbrage at Ted Koppel’s commodities question about pork bellies. A grumpy old puppet identified himself as a “contrarian” and then proceeded to disagree with everyone. Rowlf smashed apples to illustrate “the market takes a beating.”
And then a camera broke. And that led to my second favorite part of this story.
Because they were wedged in, Jim and Frank stayed in place while a technician worked to bring the camera back to life. To stay loose, they did what puppeteers often do between takes — they kept the puppets up and “alive.” Jim had Rowlf the dog on his arm and Frank was puppeteering Sam Eagle.
Rowlf looked around. “You know,” he began in his rough canine growl, “we used to shoot the old ‘Jimmy Dean Show’ here.”
Sam Eagle put his wing to his head in feigned exhaustion. “Oh, hell,” he said, “here come the Jimmy Dean stories.”
And then the most amazing piece of improv ensued. When you think about Kermit and Piggy or Rowlf and Fozzie, you forget that they were brought to life by one of the greatest comedy teams ever: Jim Henson and Frank Oz. There, in ABC Studio One, Frank’s Sam began the piece, inventing a story he’d “heard” from Rowlf for years. Jim’s Rowlf repeated what Sam said, but he did it like he wasn’t listening – like a needle had just dropped into a groove.
“I was just a little pup,” said Sam mockingly.
“I was just a little pup,” began Rowlf.
“Looking for my first break,” moaned Sam.
“Looking for my first break,” said Rowlf brightly.
“So I wandered in off the streets of New York…”
“So I wandered in off the streets of New York…”
“…through an open door,” sighed Sam.
“…through an open door,” continued Rowlf.
And so, with Frank leading and Jim pretending not to follow, we heard the story of a dog breaking into TV. The ABC news team, who had largely been ignoring us, stopped working and drifted over to watch. The bird and the dog continued. The director sidled up to the camera technician and asked when it would fixed.
“Oh, we’ve been ready for a while,” the fellow said. “I just didn’t want to stop the show.”
Nowadays if something amazing and magical happened like an American eagle exhaustedly sitting through the reminiscences of his dog friend, there would be iPhone videos from 20 different angles posted all over the internet.
But in a world where portable phones come in aluminum briefcases, that moment only exists in the memories of the people who were there.
Thanks, John Oliver, for unburying this one and bringing it to mind.
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